


One in a Thousand

by lego_flans



Series: Wherever You Stray, I Follow [1]
Category: NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, First Love, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:22:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29487447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lego_flans/pseuds/lego_flans
Summary: About a boy who catches feelings for the first time(A prologue to a multi-chapter Luyong university au)
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Series: Wherever You Stray, I Follow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165892
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	One in a Thousand

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone!! I'm so, so, so sorry for being ia for a year, uni was hella taxing yo ;-;  
> But now that I'm back, I would like to thank y'all for receiving my 20k one-shot so warmly. Your sweet comments truly make my day (｡T ω T｡)  
> This oneshot here is a prologue or teaser, rather, to a multi-chapter university au that I've been working on. I'm currently done with 25% of it but I'll start posting it when I'm halfway through. I'm really excited to share the full fic with y'all so I hope you guys look forward to it as well~~  
> While you're waiting, let's all stream "gimme gimme"~~ (ﾉ´ з `)ノ

During normal school days, the main lobby would always be bustling with students rushing to their classrooms during the morning, flooding the cafeteria in the afternoon, and excitedly heading home as the dismissal bell rang. It was the common area of the middle school and high school students inside the campus, after all. However, it would be much different during the post-examination season. Students wouldn’t be dispersed as they normally would have been, for most of them would flock to one place—the school’s bulletin board that was located inside the main lobby.

Every single name of the students in the school would appear there, along with their examination scores and ranking. While most students are quite laid-back with their studying habits, content as long as they weren’t flunking, there are some who are overly competitive about it, investing enough time, effort, and even money to secure a place at the top. Of the thousands of names that would appear in the rankings, appearing on top of the list would be the same as having the spotlight all to yourself.

One of the students who lived with that kind of thinking would be Huang Xuxi, thirteen years old and in seventh grade. But he wasn’t doing it in order to inflate his vanity. It was simply because this was his first midterm exam during middle school and he knew that it was the perfect opportunity to prove himself to his parents.

Ever since he was in grade school, he has always attended cram school religiously and tutoring sessions during the weekends. As his parents heavily invested a lot of money to make sure that he would be prioritizing his studies as far as he could remember, Xuxi believed that he had the obligation to show them good results.

With his heart pounding heavily inside his chest, he slowly made his way to the school’s main lobby, where the bulletin board was located. The air was dry and crisp, chilling to the bone and not at all helping with soothing one’s nerves. But according to the weather man in the morning news, there was nothing peculiar about this spring weather. It would be the same as always so Xuxi was convinced that he was simply frozen in place due to his own mental and emotional strains.

After all that hard work and intensive studying, Xuxi was expecting to at least see his name within the top ten students of his class. It was nerve-wracking but he wouldn’t be able to avoid seeing the results—the outcome of his efforts.

“Hey, Xuxi! Good morning!” A familiar voice called out from behind Xuxi.

It was the voice that he knew best, for it has already become a routine for him to be greeted by that same voice every day, ever since he was in kindergarten. Despite his grueling study routine that allowed him little time to play games and hang out, Xuxi always had Guanheng by his side.

That voice, if he was being honest, calmed him down a little and kept him in touch with reality. It put his feet back on the ground. But of course, he would refuse to admit that even to himself, as he believed that adolescence was supposedly the time of enforced stoicism.

“Morning,” Xuxi replied, rubbing his eyelids.

“Got lots of sleep last night?”

“What do you think?” Xuxi snorted.

“Aw, come on! You have nothing to worry about,” Guanheng patted his back with a waking force. “You probably studied so much that your brain almost exploded.”

“That’s exactly why I’m worried,” he sighed. “What if it’s still not enough?”

“Then at least you gave it your best,” Guanheng said.

“Huh, must be nice being as carefree as you.” A faint smile curled on Xuxi’s lips, as though it was impossible to read if he was being oddly honest or sarcastic.

“The important thing is, I’m able to do fine in academics and enjoy myself, okay? It’s all about the balance.” He snapped back.

“No need to be defensive. I never said it was a bad thing.”

“Ugh, whatever. I just know you aced those tests,” Guanheng huffed.

“You place too much confidence in me, man.”

“If you did, then you will owe me a day of playing games together. How about that? It’s been a long time since I played League with you.”

“But that’s impossible—”

“You can look at it as your reward,” he insisted. “It wouldn’t hurt to reward yourself once in a while, for doing great, right?”

“That does sound good but—”

“Look, if you didn’t do as well as you’d expected, then maybe you _do_ need to study instead of playing games to relax, hm?”

“Alright, fine.” Xuxi finally conceded, faintly smiling. It might have been for the best that Guanheng was the most persuasive person he knew.

It wasn’t like he was really crazy over studying, anyways. In fact, it was more of a mindset that his parents instilled into his mind. All this time, Xuxi had been itching to take a break once and for all. Every time he would gaze outside the window of his room, engulfed by his assignments and textbooks, his eyes would wander towards the direction of the other children who were his age. The other kids, who, unlike him, had the freedom to play and hang out with their friends whenever they wanted.

It hurt him every single time he had to refuse his best friend’s invitations to come over to his house and play computer games. Xuxi wanted to go, he really did, but his parents and conscience didn’t allow him to. Aside from his routinely morning jog that his parents only approved of because they believed that exercise is good for the brain, he was bound to be cooped up inside his room, buried in books.

After all that sacrifice, Xuxi believed that it has to pay off, somehow. He had to achieve great results in order to make everything he did worth it. After all, if he weren’t able to do so, then everything could have just ended in vain. Perhaps, he once thought to himself, it would actually be nice if he were to think like his best friend, for once. They may have come off as polar opposites at first, but it was only because of the familial beliefs and circumstances that shaped their upbringing. In the end, they were both just children who wanted to live their youth to the fullest.

The time they have arrived at the main lobby, they discovered how many students there were actually in the school. During the year’s opening ceremony, they were neatly dispersed into groups inside the spacious school gymnasium but now, the narrow hallways and small lobby could only cram so many students all at once. In truth, it shouldn’t have been such a surprise because the campus housed both middle school and high school students. But still, the sight of so many students flocked to a narrow area all at once was still something that called on for future renovations.

“It’s like a stampede,” Xuxi breathlessly said, his mouth agape at the sight of so many students gathered in once place, his heart pounding even harder inside his chest. The chill of uneasiness had crept around his feet and hands.

“Can’t you see it from up there?” Guanheng asked, standing on his tiptoes in an attempt to take a peek on something at the bulletin board. “You’re even taller than some upperclassmen.”

“Well, even if I can see it, I can’t read the names because we’re too far.”

“Oh. Then I guess we have no choice but to squeeze ourselves in, huh?”

“True,” Xuxi sighed.

Aside from the thick crowd of people blocking their way, the noise of ceaseless chatter from the students were near-deafening. They were all over the place and as if it were some viral disease, the anxious ramblings from one person can instantly transfer to another, simply upon hearing it.

With every single step that he took, Xuxi would at least bump into two people’s shoulders. It felt like he was walking deeper into a pile of snow. His movements slowed and it felt as if he was going to be frozen into place and suffocated. The tips of his fingertips have gotten numb and his feet felt as if there were ice packs that were stuffed into his loafers.

Then all of a sudden, for some reason he didn’t know, the crowd suddenly fell from their noisy chatter, to hushed tones. Xuxi wasn’t aware of what actually caused the students to quiet their voices down but the next thing he knew was that the crowd of students suddenly parted, as if they were making way for someone. Even Xuxi, himself stopped, along with Guanheng right beside him.

“What was that?” Xuxi leaned closer to his best friend, voice hushed.

“I’m not sure, but I kept hearing people say that _he_ ’s coming…”

“Who’s that ‘he’?”

“I don’t know, might be the principal or something—probably got pissed that this place was so noisy. Heck, the hallways are so narrow and there’s so many of us but they don’t even renovate it. That’s not our fau—”

_“Silence!”_

A voice so loudly projected resonated throughout the entirety of the main lobby. But unlike what Guanheng said, the voice sounded a little more youthful than Xuxi initially expected. He knew that the principal was an old man in his sixties so he thought that this person might not be him.

But whoever it was, the mere sound of his voice was apparently enough to silence the other students out of fear. While most of the students stopped, others snuck away from the scene, scampering like mice who had their hiding lairs discovered by exterminators. And that wasn’t even the weirdest thing about it.

Other students, mostly female, were weirdly gushing at whatever it was. Their faces were flushed red as they sneakily whispered to each other amidst the silence. Someone even muffled a squeal against their own hands. It was truly strange, some people were scared of, while others seemed to be attracted to whoever they saw standing at the opposite end of the main lobby.

The clacking of loafer heels against the marble flooring echoed throughout the halls more prominently than the hushed chatters and whispers coming from all around Xuxi. It was one person—no, the lighter echo of footsteps that followed the first stomp-like steps suggested that it was actually two people walking together.

Xuxi, being curious of what was happening, stood on his tiptoes and craned his head around to see who it was, that the other students were looking at. The crowd was very dense, but thanks to his height, Xuxi could see better than those around him.

And there they were, as Xuxi saw, walking from the opposite end of the lobby and towards the bulletin board, two male high school students distinguished by the badge on their blazer and the dark blue colored tie, compared to the middle schoolers’ yellow ones. But unlike other high schoolers, there was something pinned to the left sleeve of their blazer—a striking red ribbon that read “ _Student Council_ ”.

_Oh._

Xuxi immediately thought that it must have been the reason as to why everyone followed so obediently. Yet, he wasn’t sure why the student council would be feared so much by the student body. He has heard rumors of how they were a powerful and charismatic bunch of young individuals but he didn’t know the reason for such a grand reputation—that is, until now.

Upon a closer glance that briefly lasted for a split second, Xuxi caught their expressions and a little from their appearance. The taller boy, with slanted eyes and features that resembled those of a typically adorable snow rabbit, looked subtly angry. He did not scowl but his poker face was already quite the intimidating expression. In fact, the moment Xuxi looked at the taller boy’s face, he suddenly felt as though he did something terribly wrong.

The shorter boy, who paced a little ahead of his fellow student council member was a whole other thing, though. He was faintly smiling and there was not a single trace of anger on his face. His big round eyes had a worried look on them, but his face generally looked serene compared to his company. And most of all, even though Xuxi only caught that face for a quarter of a moment, he thought that it was the prettiest face he has ever seen in his entire thirteen years of living—more attractive than any girl he has seen before. The immaculacy of it actually shocked him to the point that he could’ve sworn that his heart skipped a beat for the first time.

“H-he looked at me!” A girl hushed a squeal as she buried her face in another girl’s arm.

“No, he didn’t! It was me he was looking at! He must’ve noticed that I put on some lipstick today.” The other girl muttered back.

It was then, that Xuxi realized why there were such mixed feelings from the crowd. Despite the two boys having two distinctly different expressions worn on their faces, their charisma completely captivated the crowd.

“We were thinking what the commotion was all about but it seems that it’s just the same as always. How many times do we have to tell every student here that you should never be cramping the main lobby whenever exam results are released?” The taller boy said, projecting his voice to resonate throughout the hall, as if he no longer needed a megaphone to reach every single student’s ears.

“The taller one, I heard that guy’s bad news,” Guanheng whispered to Xuxi, nudging him. “It’s the Disciplinary Committee Head, Kim Dongyoung.”

Xuxi was too distracted by the sight of the shorter boy who stood next to the Disciplinary Committee Head, that he wasn’t unable to respond to whatever his best friend was whispering beside him.

“There are some weird rumors from the upperclassmen that he was actually an ex-delinquent, who suddenly turned to help the student council enforce the rules in this school.” Guanheng continued. “I don’t want to believe those but his gaze is really intimidating. He must be good at his job.”

“… so should you not adhere by that rule, or any other rules stated in the student guidebook, then you shall merit yourself a session in the Disciplinary Committee room. Honestly, if I could, I would really drag every single one of you up there but it’s only capable of holding so much—”

“Now, now, that’s enough, Doyoung,” the round-eyed upperclassman said. “You’re getting a little carried away, don’t you think?”

The moment he spoke, Xuxi suddenly heard a nearby female student smack the forearm of another girl beside her as they both muffled their gushing. Now, Xuxi fully understood why they were acting that way.

“That one, on the other hand,” Guanheng added, pointing towards the shorter boy with his pinkie. This time, due to Xuxi’s interest, he leaned in closer to his best friend to listen a little more closely, while at the same time also paying attention to the beautiful upperclassman speaking. “I’m sure you’ve heard of him—our student council president, Lee Taeyong. He’s very popular, even among other schools in the area and honestly, now I think I get why.”

“I’m sure everyone just got a little too excited to see their rankings, weren’t they?” The Student Council President continued, smiling understandingly as he spoke.

“Taeyong, you can’t always be too lenient on them.” Dongyoung interjected.

“I know,” Taeyong calmly said. “While I’m not saying that we overlook it, we should also understand where they are coming from. Plus, we’re just here to send them back to their classrooms, instead of giving them a lecture, right?”

The president then turned to face the crowd of students around them. “I hope you all understand that it’s a very difficult job for the student council to maintain orderliness in this school, especially because there are only a few of us. So, everyone please, kindly help us and return to your classrooms by yourselves. If you want, you may freely check the bulletin board later after your classes have been dismissed.”

“You all heard the student council president.” Dongyoung sighed, then cleared his throat. “Go back to your classrooms once you’ve seen your rankings. Do not loiter too much around the hallways or you’ll earn a break time in the Disciplinary Committee room.”

“Doyoung.”

“Come on, I had to add that last part to make sure they’ll really listen!”

Taeyong briefly sighed and rolled his eyes at the disciplinary committee head, then faced the crowd once again. “Everyone, please understand that the student council is currently making propositions to the principal’s office and year-level coordinators in order to avoid this from happening. But for now, we trust that you will all observe proper decorum as much as possible. Do you all understand?”

“Yes,” the crowd answered in scrambled fragments of muttering.

“Perfect,” the president said, pleasantly beaming and turned his back on the crowd. “Then, shall we go back to our classroom now, Doyoung?”

Without muttering a word, the Disciplinary Committee Head who had a defeated yet stoic expression on his face followed the Student Council President as they both made their way out of the lobby. Along with them, the crowd of students obediently dissipated into smaller groups that proceeded to their respective hallways.

It was an unbelievable sight to see how hundreds or even a thousand of students collectively followed the words of two charismatic men who stood before them. For Xuxi, who was just a freshman middle-schooler, this was the first time he had witnessed what the student council was actually capable of. It left him speechless and made him completely forget what he was originally in the main lobby for.

“Xuxi? Earth to Xuxi? Are you there?” Guanheng asked, waving his palm in front of Xuxi’s face. The latter didn’t realize how long he was stuck in a daze for, until his best friend finally snapped him out of it.

“R-right, I’m here…” He responded at last.

“Most of them already went back to their classrooms. Aren’t you going to look at your ranking?”

“I will, of course.” Xuxi cleared his throat and readjusted his posture. He couldn’t believe that he completely forgot what he came for, just because an incredibly attractive upperclassman suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He knew that he wasn’t the type to be distracted so easily but it seemed as if there was a first time for everything. But it was confusing for him, for he has never felt that peculiar feeling in his chest before.

“You’re really red, you know? The President must’ve done a number on your heart.” Guanheng smugly teased.

“I’m not red,” Xuxi denied, although he was already feeling the rush of warmth to his face.

“Come on, nothing to be shy about. Everyone in this school has a crush on that person, at the very least. It’s normal.” He shrugged. “But for me, I think he’s more of a mom, being all mature like that.”

“Just be quiet, I’m trying to find my name.” Xuxi said, trying to veer his thoughts away from anything related to the student council president. As if he was afraid of outright rejection and disappointment, he purposefully chose to scan through the names starting from the bottom of the ranking, and moved it upwards, and upwards, and upwards—until he finally found his name.

“Huh…” Xuxi exhaled. “I guess I do owe you a game of League.”

  1. _Huang Xuxi (481)_



It was written a little bigger than the other names, for those in the top ten are especially emphasized. Truth be told, there was no chance to miss it if he had only looked at the topmost part of the batch list from the beginning. But despite that, Xuxi exhaled a long sigh of relief and his chest filled with pride at the thought of his parents becoming proud of him.

The next thing Xuxi knew, even though he kept avoiding the thought that has imprinted on him just a while ago, his eyes just wandered off to the list of high school students. The moment he glanced at the second-year list, he immediately saw the Student Council President’s name at the very top.

  1. _Lee Taeyong (497)_



“I told you so,” Guanheng said knowingly. “Better free up your Saturday. I’ll even clean my room just for you, too.”

“Yep,” Xuxi replied inattentively.

“Are you even liste—oh. Of course, you’d look for his name.”

“It’s weird.” Xuxi said in a puzzled tone, as if he would when he is faced with a difficult math problem that he cannot seem to crack. “Ever since I saw him, I couldn’t shake this feeling off my chest. Are those two things related or could I be palpitating because of drinking so much energy drink? I’m not sure anymore.”

“Come on, Xuxi. Calm down.” Guanheng patted his back. “I think what you have—it’s just a normal crush.”

“A-a crush?” Xuxi’s face immediately flushed with warmth.

“It’s your first time, huh?” Guanheng looked at him with such an unimpressed expression on his face. “It’s understandable because you never actually had time for that. But I guess the Student Council President just keeps working on miracles one after another.”

The weird thing was, Xuxi couldn’t actually respond as he was taking it all in, dissecting and analyzing the peculiar feelings that just bloomed in his chest. He was thinking about how that weird pounding in his chest continued, even after he was already sure of securing a spot in the top ten. He was pondering on how that only intensified, the moment he looked at his senior’s name at the top of the list of the second-year batch of high schoolers. Butterflies were fluttering about in his stomach and warmth rushed to his face.

All he could think of was how amazing this Lee Taeyong was. Attractive, charismatic, and smart—when he walks by, it was as if he was glowing and there was a halo on his head. He left Xuxi utterly starstruck.

And for the first time in Xuxi’s thirteen years of living his uneventful life, his heart skipped a beat for someone. Of course, he was familiar with the concept of it. But he realized that it wasn’t as simple as looking at someone and acknowledging the fact that they are attractive. Instead, Xuxi discovered that it was actually a colorful myriad of feelings that scattered about in his chest. He couldn’t put everything to words that would concretize what he was exactly experiencing. The uncertainty made him uncomfortable but at the same time, he was excited. As if he was looking forward to seeing that person’s face again.

“Don’t you think we should already get going?” Guanheng asked, nudging Xuxi’s shoulder. “Homeroom might start soon.”

“Right,” Xuxi said. For some reason he couldn’t explain, he couldn’t help smiling, albeit just a little faintly. “Let’s go.”

“Congratulations on your first crush, by the way.”

“Shut it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Additional notes: If you're confused by I used both "Doyoung" and "Dongyoung", it's because in this au "Doyoung" is more of a nickname used by his friends
> 
> You can hmu on my stan twt acc @hunnielemontea uwu


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